Classic-Castle.com

Unveiled today at Comic-Con San Diego, Lake-town Chase, due out in December, US$49.99:



Looks like it has lots of dark brown. Good set for building up castle towns.

Also at Comic-Con they gave away this Azog minifig. I can't imagine that they made new molds for a one-time promo, so I'm assuming that this fig (or perhaps a variant with different printing) will show up in a future set.


Bruce

The part that excites me the most is we get not just one, but TWO catapults!!! YAY!!!!

The price per piece ratio is not very favorable, but the set does look pretty neat. The ship looks very similar in construction to the one from the viking line. The dark brown is nice and the figures are neat, but at that price point, I can't see picking up more than just one. Still a neat set though, looking forward to seeing the rest of the line (and still wondering where I'm going to get the cash to buy the Tower of Orthanc before then).

$50 is waaaay too much. But I do like it. I'm a sucker for ships and sea-side villages.

Steve

I'll get it, to have it on display and collect with all the others, but I sure wont be happy about the price. I'll probably just wait til I can get it in the 30 dollar range on a sale.

I'm really not that impressed with the Azog figure, although I imagine he will be fetching a considerable price on ebay.

Hey,

Over on FBTB they have a link to a video that ran on MTV (huh?) introducing the Lake-town set, and it's not dark brown. Mostly normal (reddish) brown, with a few dark brown pieces. I guess the picture I included above just has really bad color balance.

One other piece of information in that video is that the woman who seems to be a LEGO rep (anyone know who she is?) says there will be five sets for Desolation of Smaug, counting this Lake-town one. Cue rampant speculation.

Bruce

Bruce N H wrote:Cue rampant speculation.

Well one of them must include Smaug. And maybe Beorn's house?

Steve

I don't see why this is a $50 set. There have been other LOTR sets with poor price/piece ratios but they had a cave troll, horses, or wargs. I see two new molds, some new printing and that boat. Please tell me the $10 isn't for that boat... Price aside, I like this set a lot. The figs are fantastic and I imagine I may be trading for more of that new shield print. The buildings look quite nice too. I was afraid the colors were poorly represented here; a mass of dark brown would have made the price more tolerable.

Athos wrote:

Bruce N H wrote:Cue rampant speculation.

Well one of them must include Smaug. And maybe Beorn's house?

Lake town
Smaug set
or an Entrance to Misty Mountain- the door perhaps?
Something involving Dol Guldur/Radaghast/Gandalf
Beorn's house
More Mirkwood Elves/Legolas/Tauriel

I'd say. Surprised we're getting so many though- I was worried having two released earlier in the first wave would mean we were going to get less if anything. Hope the Azog fig makes his way into the regular sets!

Str0ngbad wrote:I don't see why this is a $50 set. There have been other LOTR sets with poor price/piece ratios but they had a cave troll, horses, or wargs. I see two new molds, some new printing and that boat. Please tell me the $10 isn't for that boat...

Yeah, Str0ngbad, I think you hit it right on the head. We're almost going into the Star Wars level of ridiculous prices...

I also think it's kinda lame because the boat is basically a blatent copying of the 7016 Viking Boat against the Wyvern Dragon.

(Photo by kingkong21 on flickr)
Anyone else think so? Granted, the Hobbit set is a way better looking one. The shield in the middle of the boat is really cool with the dual fish design.

With the actual render, I feel like all of the renderings coming out at this time have been really shotty. The new minecraft sets, the Lego Movie set, the star wars set, now this, etc. Giving out pretty 'meh' impressions. Seems like they rushed these out really fast.

~FB~

I agree FB, the hobbit boat appears to be the same exact copy of the Viking one. You would think with a license that more effort would be put in, but maybe the exact opposite is true. Maybe they are expecting these licenses to just sale themselves regardless of piece count or quality.
I must say, I am very disappointed in this set.

Then again, I was extremely disappointed in the new castle sets until I saw them in person. Perhaps it will be the case with this one. I certainly hope so.

Hey,

Ace from FBTB is at SDCC and got more pictures of Lake-town Chase. Looking closely at the parts involved, most things look standard, except the new gothic half-arch in brown (2 of these), the rounded window in dark green (4 of these - only in two sets in this color before), a fair number of weapons (Sting, two of the gladius, one of the newer bows, one flail, one pike). I'm pretty sure Bard has the Qui-Gon Ginn hair in black, which we have only had in the two forms of brown before. Two new helms - one more generic and the one with hair. All of the torsos look generally useful for castle. Great shield on the boat - I assume the pattern is the same on both sides, but could not tell from the pics.

A Eurobricks forum member apparently got an e-mail response from Mark Stafford confirming that the Azog fig will appear in a future set, but he implied there would be a different coloring. If you really need the fig now, in this color, There is an auction on ebay right now with bids going up to $500+ and another with a single bid of $990.

Some 75-year-old spoilers follow.

On the rampant speculation about the five sets coming out in December, I think a lot turns on two questions - 1) Where will movie 2 end? and 2) Will there be a big battle around Dol Guldur? Given that movie 2 will have some big action climax I see this going one of two ways. I think there will either be a bit of mystery/cliff-hanger around the Lonely Mountain and a big action sequence at Dol Guldur, or the other way around. My suspicion is the first of these, so here is my proposal:
-Lake-town Chase set
-Bilbo and Smaug in the treasure-chamber
-Big Dol Guldur battle set
-Small set of the secret door with a couple of dwarves
-Elf/orc small army builder set, probably with the Azog fig (from the trailer didn't we see Azog attacking some sort of elf watchtower?)

Bruce

Thanks for the pics Bruce. Those new pieces and all the new minifig additions make it slightly more tolerable. I really like the black Qui Gon hair, and some of the new headpieces and minifig parts are just plain quirky. However I still feel that for the price, the $40 range would have been much more appropriate.

Then again, it is to my understanding that LEGO generally bases the price of a set on weight, not pieces. Is this correct or totally fallible information?

When I saw this set, it just screamed 'parts pack' to me. I really can't see any interest in it for kids. Where's the action? "Hey kid, would you like this truck that looks like a wolf and fires missiles? or this mostly brown half-a-building?" I can imagine which way a child is going to choose.

I'm sure a lot of AFOLs will be hoping to scoop these up on discount (especially for parts drafts) for the parts that Bruce has mentioned. I like the appearance of the Qui-Gon hair in black. I was always under the impression that some parts were license exclusive/specific? But I guess that may just be parts like movie-specific helmets (eg Vader, Stormtrooper etc).

I heard Azog might turn up in a white variation, which I think might be more movie accurate. Interesting that they made him a new hand piece rather than just sticking on a standard hook hand.

I agree with you guys, the set seems a bit out of balance for the price. I kinda wish the buildings were taller, more like what was seen in the trailer. Did anyone else think the guards helmet was a little crazy? And looking at Bard's head it's very similar to Will Turner's from PotC. Pretty interesting. I'll probably get it when it goes on sale.

Oddly, Bard in the movie is almost a dead ringer for Will Turner. When I first saw the trailer I even thought they had Bloom playing Bard for a moment.

Someone on EB whom I know to be proficient with LDD says the piece count is 450+. That would make so much more sense and make me feel a lot better about buying it. I still need to see better pictures of this set and what else is being released before I make up my mind. It would have been such a no-brainer if it had only been in dark brown...